Chap. VI [. BURIAL OF KING OLENDA. 133 



their bodies with ashes ; and as tlie body was carried 

 out of the village, cries of anguish and lamentation 

 were heard ; all the people shouting out, " He will 

 not take care of us any more — he will not speak to 

 us any more. Oh, Olenda, why have you left us ! 

 Oh, Olenda, why have you left us ! " Two days 

 afterwards I went myself to the cemetery. The 

 corpse of the old chief was placed on the ground, in 

 a sitting posture, enveloped in a large European coat 

 which I had given him, and by his side was the 

 imibrella ; the head looked already like a skull, co- 

 vered with dry, wrinkled, parchment-like skin. By 

 his side lay a chest containing the various presents I 

 had given him, and also plates, jugs, cooking utensils, 

 his favourite pipe, and some tobacco, and a fire was 

 burning, which the people keep alight day and night 

 by the corpse of a chief, sometimes for many weeks. 

 There was also a plate of victuals, brought, according 

 to the custom of these people, for the corjDse to eat, 

 and renewed daily for some time. The aspect of the 

 place was not cheering, as may well be imagined ; 

 all around lay the bones of the ancestors of the 

 Ademba chief, in various stages of decay. For several 

 mornings after his burial, the people came to me and 

 declared that they had seen Olenda the previous 

 evening, walking in the village, and that he had 

 told them that he had not left them entirely, but 

 would come from time to time to see how they were 

 going on. I have no doubt they believed what they 

 said, as their imaginations were greatly excited during 

 this dreadful period. 



The once cheerful prairie of Ashira had now 



